Background & Objective: Pseudomonsa aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumanii are common non-fermenters which have emerged as the most common opportunistic pathogens in recent years. Persistent exposure of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Acinetobacter baumanii to β-lactam antibiotics leads to acquired resistance through mutation and over production of various enzymes which also include AmpC or class C β-lactamases and extended spectrum β-lactamase (ESBL). For clinical microbiologists, detection of ESBL and AmpC-mediated resistance together poses a problem because the phenotypic tests may be misleading; resulting in misreporting and treatment failures. Methods: A total number of 94 consecutive, non-repetitive, imipenem sensitve clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa (n=64) and Acinetobacter baumanii (n=30) obtained over a period of 6 months, were screened for β-lactamase production by nitrocefin disc and production of ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase is detected by Inhibitor based test. Results: A total of 50 out of 94 isolates were positive for β-lactamase production; of which 17 (15.98%) and 22(20.68%) were ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase producers respectively. Conclusion: The inhibitor based method is useful for detection of ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase and helpful to differentiate ESBL from AmpC producers. As high incidence of ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase production in gram negative isolates is alarming and urgent actions needs to be taken for therapeutic and infection control measure. This is only possible if correct detection of ESBL and AmpC β-lactamase is done in clinical laboratory.

Since ages, many plants have been used for preservative and medicinal purposes due to the presence of secondary metabolites referred as Phytochemicals. Phytochemicals are biologically active plant compounds having disease hampering capabilities and preservative action. The genus Ocimum contains more than 200 species of herbs and shrubs which have been shown to have medicinal properties and also are used as a culinary herb, preservative and flavoring agents. In this study methanol extracts from the leaves of Ocimum species (O. sanctum purple, O. sanctum green, O. gratissimum, O. basilicum and Camphor basil) were investigated for their phytochemical constituent and antioxidant activity. Also, six extracts (Ethanol, Methanol, Propanol, Chloroform, Petroleum Ether and Iso-amyl alcohol) were assayed to test their ability to inhibit the clinically isolated Enterobacteria (S. pneumoniae, Proteus sp., E. faecalis, S. typhi, S. aureus and B. subtilis). The Ocimum sp. were screened for the presence of phenolic content, glycosides, anthraquinones, terpenoids, proteins, flavinoids, tannins, lignin and Saponins. The test results were positive for all Phytochemicals in methanolic extracts of Ocimum sp. The antioxidant activity was measured by reducing power assay, 1-1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay and Thiobarbituric acid (TBA) which showed positive. In the antimicrobial assay studies O. gratissimum and O. basilicum showed maximum antibacterial activity compared to other species with maximum activity in isoamyl alcohol extract. The Present investigation suggests that the phytochemical content and its antioxidant properties can be further studied for its application in health and in food industries. Furthermore, these species can be used as a source of novel drugs for the treatment of infectious diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms.

The present investigation was carried out to evaluate the effect of different growth conditions on lipase production by different bacterial isolates. The extracellular lipase producing bacteria Bacillus sp., Serratia sp. Pseudomonas sp. and Staphylococcus sp. were isolated from industrial effluents. Optimization of physical and chemical parameters was done for maximum lipase production using these isolates and mixed culture (consortia). Growth of the organisms and lipase production were measured with varying pH (4-10), incubation temperature (4-60°C), incubation time (15-72 hrs.), carbon source, nitrogen source, different inducers and metal ions. Enhanced lipase production for most of the isolates was observed at 35°C, pH 7 and after 45 hrs. of incubation. Glycerol, soy meal and starch were observed as effective carbon sources and casein, peptone and tryptone as effective nitrogen sources for lipase production. Among the metal ions Ca2+ showed good lipase production with all the isolates and with consortia and the substrates Pongemia oil and Neem oil were observed as good inducers for lipase production. In the present study consortia showed an increased lipase content in comparison to individual isolates under all the optimized conditions.

A retrospective study was conducted during the period of 1st July 2010 to 30th June 2011 in the department of microbiology of HAH centenary Hospital, Hamdard Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. A total of 2907 Stool samples send to the microbiology department from indoor and outdoor patients with gastrointestinal symptoms with or without anemia were analyzed. The patients were mostly from low socio economic strata of Sangam Vihar. 759 samples were positive for parasitic infections. The most common intestinal parasites were found to be E. histolytica (20.22%), followed by Giardia lamblia (2.68%) and Ascaris lubricoides (1.4%). Ova of Hookworm and larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis was found 6 times each. Other common parasitic isolates were Taenia species (0.1%), H. nana (0.48%), Trichuris trichura (0.1%) and Trichomonas hominis 17 (0.58%). The study emphasizes on better drinking water and sanitation requirement for the target population.

The doxycycline (DOX) is a broad-spectrum antibiotic used in several countries. This drug is part of the list of medicines to the SUS (Unified Health System), a model of health care in Brazil. This study describes the development and validation of a microbiological assay, applying the turbidimetric method for the determination of DOX, as well as the evaluation of the ability of the method in determining the stability of DOX in tablets against acidic and basic hydrolysis, photolytic and oxidative degradations, using Escherichia coli ATCC 10536 as micro-organism test and 3x3 parallel line assay design, with nine tubes for each assay, as recommended by the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia. The developed and validated method showed excellent results of linearity, selectivity, precision, accuracy and robustness. The assay is based on the inhibitory effect of DOX using Escherichia coli ATCC 10536. The results of the assay were treated by analysis of variance and were found to be linear (r= 0.9986) in the range from 4.0 to 9.0μg/mL, precise (repeatability R.S.D.= 0.99 and intermediate precision was confirmed by statistical analysis the mean values obtained from analysis by different analysts) and exact (97.73%). DOX solution exposed to direct UV light, alkaline and acid hydrolysis and hydrogen peroxide causing oxidation were used to evaluate the specificity of the bioassay. Comparison of bioassay and liquid chromatography showed differences in results between methodologies. The results showed that the bioassay is valid, simple and useful alternative methodology for DOX determination in routine quality control.